air fed mask ??

[billm]

I'm was planning on spraying various individual car panels with 2K outside using a good quality mask .. but not an air fed one ... but I've just been told that this is still dangerous as the 2K will go straight through the mask.

The advice was to get an air fed mask. But this itself requires 7cfm, add that ontop of the gun's requirements and you're looking at either 2 compressors or installing 3ph and going the whole hog with a big compressor - both of which are clearly non starters.

So has anyone sprayed 2K without an airfed mask .. and lived ?

[Anatol]

Plenty of people. It's not fall-over-clutching-throat stuff from a war film.

- I'm going to have to partially take that back, having just read http://safety1st.gsfc.nasa.gov/safety -

It's still nasty though, sensitising, cumulative, and can cause asthma 'rapidly' according to relevant research. The risk is heightened if you smoke.

The HSE's guidelines on spraying this stuff are at:

http://hse.gov.uk/mvr/coshhessentials
and
http://hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg388.pdf

Worth bearing in mind that skin and eye exposure to spraymist is also a really bad idea, which is why positive airflow protecting the face and eyes is required, rather than just safety specs and a filter mask (as well as oversuits and nitrile gloves).

So, it might kill you in some circumstances, and exposure can mess up your lungs irreversibly and fast. Even if you filter the air you're breathing, skin and eye absorption could still permanently harm your health.

Tol

[crankedup]

Bl00dy hell!! excuse my ignorance but what the heck is 2k exactly. Nothing to do with cellulose I hope???

[Anatol]

2k is shorthand for "two component". I think the K is because the German word for component starts with one. Sometimes called 2 pack, because the two components of the paint are kept in two separate packs (sometimes seen as 2-pak). They are mixed together before painting, rather like the two parts of an epoxy glue. They cure prinicipally chemically, rather than by evaporation of a solvent.

Many automotive finishes include isocyanate compounds in them, usually in the hardener component. These are the compounds that generate all the HSE guidelines above.

Cellulose is a different beast )

Tol

[Davi]

what paints fall into this catagory?! Does 2 part epoxy paint?

[Anatol]

Epoxy paint can have isocyanates in it.

When not atomised, for example as a garage/workshop floor paint applied by roller or brush, the same protection issues don't really arise - the iso polymers in it aren't volatile and the lack of a spraymist means simple splash protection should suffice.

Tol

[Davi]

Anatol said:

Epoxy paint can have isocyanates in it.

When not atomised, for example as a garage/workshop floor paint applied by roller or brush, the same protection issues don't really arise - the iso polymers in it aren't volatile and the lack of a spraymist means simple splash protection should suffice.

Tol

It's the spraying side that concerns me, I have some epoxy I was intending to use to spray quite a bit of stuff, I will have to check the ingredients out.

[crankedup]

Looks like I will be OK then to spray my car mudguards after all, with cellulose. I am intending to use a face mask with two cartridge filters, as well as gloves and wot not.

[billm]

You can get filter type masks from your paint supplier for about £15 - £30 that are specifically 2k compliant. So for those of us that are spraying 2k at home for short periods of time, this will offer sufficient protection. Afterall you're going to be getting out of the garage pretty quick after spraying anyway and not stopping in there.